- Zodiac - [Inactive]

Ukime got her paid check from the past week. She rode down the road on her skate board as she looked up toward the sky then toward some houses. She was bored today, like every other day except she was a bit more lively since she was out and about. She sung in her head as she turned on the street near the school.


(Drops suck post and walks away whistling- Nothing to see here)
 
Adonna had never felt like this before. This... power. All she'd ever been was flesh, bone, and rage, yet this rushing sensation ascended her above a desperate human. She gazed upon the spider with new eyes, assessing the towering beast and the boy who rode upon it.





"You are still human."


It was apparent. The tugging feeling in the back of her brain that told her not to stupidly charge towards a monster the size of a building. A retreat was what it called for. A retreat, for what human could face a thing as such and survive? You'll need to handle this. Those were Ulysses' words. She looked behind her. There were four of her classmates, some she recognized more than others. Afront the blonde girl was a sizable axe, Shun himself was wearing a mask, and Hotaru was within a mist of red. Are they all...? Yes, them too, they had power. She was not alone in this.


Turning back to the giant, she grimaced with resolve, fully concentrating on the daunting task. If only I could get to him, the human atop the spider. This was what instinct, and perhaps Ulysses' granted power, told her to do. But there was no way to reach him as long as he was... Her frown deepened, her eyes on its hairy legs. Cripple the beast.


"I'll keep that in mind," she responded to Ulysses. Letting out a long breath, she pushed down the animal side of her that told her to turn anywhere but towards the monstrous being, and dashed towards it, intent on taking out its front leg.


 
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| Afternoon |


| Friday |


Date: September 20, 2014

​



Shun would had felt his own mind unfog, almost literally in the sense of how it felt. Previous doubts and fears were simply washed away and replaced with careful analyzing. A hollow in your world. It's not impossible, but it's rare for one of this scale to escape. Bastion's thoughts became one with Shun's. Would you mind birthing a bird of some kind? We need to get a better look at this hollow.


Anything created from Shun's painting was simply another form of himself. His feelings and intentions had a controlling influence over the creations. What they saw, so did he. The physical forms of the brush and the pistol felt like he could simply reach out and grab them from thin air. A strange but powerful ability if he played it right.


My axe - it's acting funny!


Tyrik was still with the group in spirit, but her physical body had simply vanished.


Until I figure this out, you're going to have to do my bidding, Alice. Murder that f**king thing.


Like Shun, Alice had a complete change of senses. Everything felt lighter, even she did. If Alice tried, chances are she could leap up to the second story window of the school. Not to mention a subtle burning rage within her. It felt like she could control and manifest her anger into actual fire. All of the negative emotions would unleash a blue flame that burned according to how intense or oppressed the anger was.


Resse didn't speak. It looked as if he didn't need to. The large spider he rode on stood at the ready, a sphere of webbing being prepared with the help of two back legs. With each growing moment, the ball got bigger. That's when Adonna had charged in with fists ready. The spider already prepared, it lifted it's two front legs and began driving them down towards Adonna as she approached. Each strike ripped up the ground, nearly pegging her to the dirt itself. The last attack, however, was sent ahead of her path, and the one leg flicked a massive chunk of the ground up in front of her.
 
Damian had been hopping from shade to shade, making his way toward the chaos. As he grew closer, the palette of the world began to shift. It was as if he had falling comatose in some sort of acid dream. But as the duo traveled within this new reality, Lance was having trouble keeping hold of Damian's body. You could see Lance being forcibly yanked from Damian. "Dammit. So that's what the damn thing had done." Acting quickly, Lance had jumped Damian on top of a two story house not far from the school campus. From their Damian and Lance both could see the Arachnid that had taken the school as its territory. Lance had left Damian's body, leaving Damian gasping for air again. "Lance! I keep telling you not to do that!" Lance shrugged. "I had to. Either that, or we run while wasting time. Now, I hope you at least got an idea of what Shadow jumping is like..." Lance had took two steps forward, kneeling over on the edge of the house. He scoped out the area seeing if there were anymore Hollows lurking about in company with Reese. "That Hollow is alone. Thank Goodness. Alright. Damian, we have an advantage for being late to the party. We can launch a sneak attack on the bastard. When I possessed you during that fight with Len, do you remember the La-- Ahem. Spear, I made. The one made of the shadows collect from the ground?" Damian almost wanted to laugh at the coincidence of Lance also being the name of a weapon, but for the sake of Lance he decided to swallow it. He knew it was slightly embarrassing. "Yes.. Funny enough, I remember the whole thing. Which makes me wonder why I didn't remember what happened during the first dream we had." Lance waved his hand back and forth. "Don't worry about that right now. We have a Hollow to eliminate. After this, I'll answer more questions that I know you have. Curious human." Lance said teasingly. Damian had only frowned. "So... What do you want me to do? Spear the damn thing?" Lance turned his head, sporting that same sinister grin on his face.
 
The mask brought upon a wave of relief as Shun's fears instantly melted away leaving him with a clear mind to analyze the situation with Bastion's assistance.


A bird...


He perfectly understood Bastion's reasoning to scout the opponent in attempt to obtain information for their party, however, as Shun observed the arachnid's immediate response to Adonna's reckless charge, he concluded that the opponent's intelligence surpassed that of a mindless creature.


Clever, rather than risk missing a direct attack, it chose the terrain in an attempt to incapacitate her movements.


Unknown to himself was the laughter that had overtaken his composure. For a soul who lacked the ability to find excitement in life, this was an opportunity for him to feel alive, and for one lost in his analysis, appearances of potential insanity was hardly a concern.


"Don't engage recklessly, the hollow is smarter than it looks!"


Shun's words of warning were shouted to the group in hopes that all would hear them, but his primary focus was on his own task at hand. Reaching forward, Shun took hold of Bastion's brush and revolver from the air itself before beginning two paintings in the space before him.


The first painting was that of a simple swallow which he figured would be agile enough to safely circle the hollow without risk to its existence. Shooting the swallow with the revolver, the form of the small bird was instantly manifested, and it began to methodically circle Shun's figure as if waiting for its master's orders. The second painting was much more complex than the first, and the success of its manifestation was entirely a gamble on its creator's part.


Shooting his second painting, a grin came to Shun's face as quickly shielded his eyes from the blinding yellow light given off by the phoenix hovering in the space before him.


As a creature of a world plagued by a darkened environment, Shun had concluded the possibility of an abhorrence to light during his prior analysis of the situation. At worst case, the manifestation would simply fizzle without purpose; but, at best case, the phoenix would act as a blinding distraction from his own spy, and the attacks of his allies.


Sending the birds forward, Shun positioned the phoenix directly in front of the spider's eyes while the sparrow was sent from behind to begin its act of espionage. Droplets of sweat began to bead on Shun's forehead and he let out a deep sigh from the concentration at hand. With his inexperience in using Bastion's ability, controlling one creation would have been a task enough, but the fact that he had summoned two made the control of both nearly impossible. Focusing entirely on the swallow, Shun simply hoped the potential distraction would last long enough before the helpless phoenix was destroyed by an attack from the spider.
 
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Watching as Adonna recklessly charged in with her fist in the air, aiming at the front legs. Alice for once thought she was crazy but at the same time, Adonna was so amazing just like that time when she jumped in and saved Dominic from Red's wrath. But it seemed that Adonna's punches wouldn't be enough to face off the spider, it's legs piercing down to the ground, making huge holes down to the ground to stop Adonna's movement. Almost losing her balance also, Alice quickly caught herself on the Eliminator but quickly let go, not wanting to get shocked by it but it didn't seem to do so.


"Don't engage recklessly, the hollow is smarter than it looks!"


Turning to Shun, she heard his warning and nodded, looking back at the Eliminator with curious eyes.


Until I figure this out, you're going to have to do my bidding, Alice. Murder that f**king thing.


As if Tyrik words were encouraging her fire, Alice felt a sudden urge to murder something, her body feeling lighter than usual. Her hand moving at it's own accord and gripping at the cold handle of the Eliminator. The touch of the chilling metal didn't seem to make her flinch at the least and luckily she didn't get electrified by the thing like how Tyrik was. Pulling at the handle, she easily picked up the huge axe and soon blue flames appeared upon it, coating it in blazing flames which didn't seem to affect her in any way to harm her.


Swinging the Eliminator for a little test, it seemed that the axe was made for her. Gripping the handle tighter, she looked to her right and noticed Shun summoning two birds, one a swallow and the other the legendary fire bird, Phoenix. The beautiful bird shined brightly making Alice blinded by it's light,"Distracting the spider with light huh? Spiders dislike the light so this better work." Alice thought already catching along what Shun was planning and took this opportunity to attack.


Getting into a crouching position, she prepared herself to attack. Kicking her feet upward, she launched herself in the air and held the axe above her head, her eyes only focused on taking Reese down instead. Seeing since he was doing nothing but just sitting there and was blinded by the light of the Phoenix, he was open for attacks. Her deep-blue eyes blazed brightly almost as if she was Tyrik.


The feeling of being in the air and now attacking the body of her friend, who was now a mindless hollow only interested for their flesh, felt as if time was going slow for her. Memories of Reese erased from her mind and only the burning flame to erase the existence of the spider from the face of the earth for hurting her friends struck her mind. Her anger boiling like molten lava that was about to erupt any second in raging meteor showers of flaming rocks.
 

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| Afternoon |


| Friday |


Date: September 20, 2014

​



Brightness. It was the only thing concerning the kaiju at this point. It's front legs quit trying to jab Adonna and repurposed itself to covering it's many eyes. Wherever the spider looked, the phoenix was there. Resse wasn't as bothered by the light because he simply lifted his palm before his face. Simple fix.





"..!"


Resse was just able to spot a silhouette against the purple sky, Alice with the Eliminator and her own burning rage. Resse simply grinned as he stood up and watched as she came down. The axe splitting him down the middle and straight into the back of the spider. Resse's split forms shifted into crows, which flew some feet back before reforming his entire body once more. The spider on the other hand jerked in pain as purple blood came firing out of it's wound and into the air in large amounts.


Frowning now, Resse ran full sprint towards Alice with the intent of kicking her in the face while she worked on freeing the Eliminator.


That boy is the obvious target to attack, but we don't know if he's got control over this creature or not. If we kill him now, this hollow may end up destroying everything else.


In a fit of pain and rage, the spider spun it's entire body around, using that ball of webbing from earlier as a wrecking ball that came swinging at Adonna, Shun, and Hotaru equally. Not to mention Ben who was strangely quiet in all this.
 
Nikky knelt down beside the woman and her husband whose bleeding head was now properly bandaged. The woman sighed relieved then looked up at the girl and smiled, “Thank you so much.” Nikky blushed but smiled back, glad, “Um, no problem.” She then stood and walked off to leave them alone. She leaned against the wall away from the crowd to stare into space.


Her mind wondered back to the nightmare she had a few days ago. She was scared and confused, but it was amazing at the same time. She bit her bottom lip, she wanted more, to feel fear and be truly scared for her life. She stared at her feet, ‘Is that crazy?’ she thought about it for a moment but all her life she’s been looking for adventure, it was something she truly loved but once she grew up the adventure and mystery in life has all but disappeared. She grabbed her hand to try and stop from shaking in excitement; it was dangerous, she was going to be flirting with death after all.


But hey, you never truly value something until you lose it.


A man shouted towards the people standing near the window, “Hey! Stay clear of the windows!”
 
Hotaru stretched out her arms to thin out the blood. She found it a bit funny, it was like she was playing with the liquid and was having fun. It was too little and it seemed a bit gross for her to play with the blood, due to the source being Ben's nose. Hotaru dropped her hands, the blood dropped to the ground. As if she was in a trance, she grinned digging her fingers into her palm. As she drew blood Hotaru took a small amount and thinned it out to the thickness of paper. She examined it and it's sharpness before plunging it into her own skin. Her left hand's palm was faced downward, she had stabbed the blood shard in to the radial artery, which was right below her thumb. Hotaru did think it out, she was about to pierce the jugular vein because it bled the most, but it was nearly impossible to stop the bleeding. She could try to clot the blood, but she didn't want to take a risk.


As the blood began to form from the wound, Hotaru used her right hand to pinch the wound. It forced more blood to seep out, she violently stretched her hand out, the blood followed and soon Hotaru was underneath a rainbow made entirely of thick, rich and pure blood from Hotaru herself. Her vision blurred a bit from forcing too much blood out of her body. Thankfully her O blood type was the universal donor. She could donate to any other blood, meaning if someone was hurt she could easily help them out. This gave her more confidence, Hotaru could protect her friends. She quickly secured her stance and stared straight into the eyes of the spider.


It was so adorable! Hotaru needed to keep it. Maybe she could convince her other friends to not kill it. Getting chills, Hotaru stretched her arms again, this quickly caused her to yawn. Hotaru had two images in her head, she was going to shape the blood into the two shapes. Hotaru divided the blood in half, one hand held one half. The other began to shape the blood into a weapon of her choice. She tried to use as little blood as possible. She quickly shaved off the excess blood and added it to the other half.


In her possession was a baseball bat made of O blood type. Hotaru grinned as she swung it around with her left bloody hand. She placed the bat next to her and focused on the other half of blood. She needed something that could could draw blood from the spider. Hotaru widened her arms to thin out the blood and began to shape it with her hands. A large blade of blood was in the process of being made. Hotaru used her other hand to use the excess blood to create a handle for the sword.


Hotaru proceeded to thin out the blood to collect the blood that was leftover. It was small, but every little drop counted. Hotaru then led the blood into the wound. At the last drop, she clotted the blood so new blood would not seep out. Hotaru held the sword with both of her hands and swung foreword cutting up the air.


The girl watched as Adonna go for an attack at the spider. Shun tried to stop her, Alice also tried to attack but it was aimed for Reese. Hotaru watched as the spider's hind legs create a white ball. Hotaru blinked a bit. It's movements resembled the preparation of catching it's feast. Hotaru slowly realized that the purple ground was it's web, and her friends would be the food. Hotaru thought back to what she had learned about spiders. Their webs are nearly impossible to escape from, it was strong as steel, and--


Hotaru quickly ducked to the ground gripping the grass. The spider turned around. It was going to try to attack. Hotaru took a stone off the ground and threw it at Shun. Maybe he could warn the rest, he was pretty smart wasn't he? She was going to hold her head against the ground until the spider was done with it's rampage, but a shot of adrenaline caused her to destroy her weapons and put up a shield around her friends. Hotaru's brain shut down as her hands took action.


Hotaru felt a bit dizzy as she watched her blood travel everywhere to protect her friends. She needed her weapons back, she bit into her wound and drew blood out.
 
The Eliminator was in contact with Reese, watching as the boy got up with a disgusting smirk playing at his lips as if he was taunting Alice. Her anger grew and the fire that surrounded the axe grew bigger, increasing it's size due to her anger but something was off with his smirk and Alice knew that she needed to stop but it was too late.


Slashing down through Reese's body into half only to see him turn in crows and fly off away from harm and reforming his body back into one. Instead, the axe stabbed the giant spider in the back, hearing it's shriek in pain, it's wound gushing out purpler blood, some catching onto Alice's clothes and hair,"Yuck, Spider flesh." Alice thought, trying to pull the Eliminator out of the spider's back.


Glancing up at Reese, Alice clenched her teeth, irritated that he got away from her attack,"Seems he's able to become like a bird." She mumbled,"But I'll cook your birdy a** up!" She said, ripping out the Eliminator and blocking Reese's attack with quick movement. Swinging the axe upward, she was about to slash at Reese but noticed the huge web ball that the spider created, turning into some kind of wrecking ball and coming straight towards her friends.


She couldn't do anything since she was not close enough to even help but suddenly she noticed Hotaru. A ball of red liquid formed around them and blocking the spider's web ball from getting anywhere close to them as if acting as a barrier,"That won't hold for long." Alice thought and turned to Reese then to the spider, a plan forming into her mind which she hoped would work.


"Sorry, but your pet gonna die now!" She said and slammed the Eliminator down into the spider's wounds instead, making the wound open bigger and more spider guts to fly out at Alice but she ignored this and took the Eliminator at the wound once more, pulling it out and slamming it down another time. The fire burning brighter and bigger as if it was a huge bonfire that was blazing out of the spider's back,"Die you piece of sh*t!" She yelled, this being caused by her anger, deepening the cut more, not even caring the Reese would beat her up for this.

Phone


Headphones


Tyrik's Axe ( The Eliminator )
 
A grin of success came to Shun's face as the spider began to cower from the light produced by his Phoenix. Watching as Alice sent her axe straight into the spider's back, Shun took note of the boy who literally flew from his position on its back only to reappear behind Alice.


"Focus on the spider!"


Shun's latest call was the result of a quick analysis over the new factor brought by the boy who had joined the fray. Although the boy appeared to posses some ability, Shun concluded that the sheer size and potential disruption the spider could bring to their fight outweighed the possibility of danger from an unknown source.


"Adonna, provi--"


Shun who predicated a counter attack from the boy against Alice intended to inform Adonna to back up Alice in her assault; however, as his words were attempted, a sharp pain affected the side of his head while his vision began to slightly blur. With a wave of dizziness coming over his self, Shun barely managed to notice his creations beginning to fade and quickly dispelled the swallow which had long served its purpose. Shaking his head to clear it, Shun refocused his attention to the battle at hand only to notice the large ball of web about to crash down upon him. Without time to readjust his position, Shun could only watch as the ball neared his self, and the timely shield of blood appeared to deflect its blow. Had Shun been crouched along the ground, the protection of Hotaru's blood would have entirely protected his well-being, but the force of the ball reverberating against the shield sent Shun, who was standing right at its border, flying backwards as he landed against the ground near Hotaru with a fairly loud crack.


Attempting to ignore the pain screaming from what he assumed to be a shattered right arm, Shun slowly rose to his feet all while onlooking the scene that was occurring. As he had expected, the boy had re-positioned himself behind Alice for a counter attack, and without time for another member to act, Shun chose to quickly position the phoenix, which had miraculously remained summoned, as a shield in the boy's line of kick.


Once more taking hold of Bastion's brush, Shun began to paint a spear that he figured could be used to impale itself into the soon to be off-balanced boy. As he made the first swipe of his brush, Shun noticed that his own actions and those around him had begun to slow.


One of us can control time?


Shuns thoughts were confused as he attempted to understand the sudden difference in environment, but with determination to finish his goal, Shun dropped the brush, took hold of Bastion's revolver, and shot the self completed painting.


The world seemed surreal shortly after the spear shot forwards toward the boy. Shun's vision blurred and the sharp pain returned once more to this envelope the entirety of his head with a pressure that nearly brought tears to his eyes. Feeling a hot liquid beginning to flow against his cheek, Shun placed his hand against the side of his head only for his blurred world to began rotating just before fading from his view entirely.


Shun would be able to let out a small chuckle before falling against Hotaru where their collision would knock off Bastion's mask to reveal the small stream of blood flowing from his right ear.
 
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Lance had been observing the battle from above though he was beginning to waver away from the ward surrounding the spider and Reese that seemed to make a circumference around where the battle had been taking place. Lance saw his arms fade in and out of reality, his time left on Earth had soon been up. "Damn it all. Damian, you're going to have to do this without my guidance. I can see that one of your allies has crafted a spear of his own. One has a shield up, two are on the ground and incapacitated. They'll need some outside help. Get going." Lance had disappeared into his black hole, leaving Damian alone to figure out what he should do. "Okay... I can see what is... Alice? Is that an Axe by her side? I'll figure it out later. Alice is the one in immediate danger... So it's best if I save her first. Whomever that boy is, I'll have to attend to him second. Okay... I can do this." Damian had became one with a nearby shadow and darted from it, slithering down the side of the building and emerging from one on the ground. Now at ground level, he could get a better look at the situation. He saw Hotaru who was surrounded by an orbiting mass of blood, Alice who was wielding a large Axe, and.. Another young man. He was a new face to Damian but he was bleeding and looked to be in pretty bad shape. Damian had to act fast. He locked on to his target who was the same young man from the School tour. A shame that Damian had to attack him, but it was necessary that he needed to be put down if he's capable of controlling a building sized Arachnid and cause this much damage to his peers. Damian took a second to think about how he wanted to approach the situation, and the best way he would do that is to think about how he would take out a hostile enemy in Dark Souls. And how did he do that? A backstab. Damian chuckled at the thought of being so dirty, and also at the prospect of being able to use his power once more. That same blood lust had begun to come over him. "Okay... I know what to do with you." Damian held out his arm, keeping his hand flat. A spiral of shadows had been called around his forearm, creating a shadowy blade extending from his forearm and hand. Damian's form had became pitch black again and phased into the ground, and at a speed that a human could not catch in their peripherals, he creeped into Reese's own shadow. Slowly and quietly, he rose from his shadow. A black entity with a look of malice stared down Reese's back. Damian held his arm back and lunged it towards Reese's spine.
 
The spider nearly crushed her under its foot. So much for it being slow or stupid. When she dodged (thanks to Ulysses' gift of power, no doubt) the first two attempts to be ironically squashed under the spider's leg, it changed its tactics, throwing a chunk of terrain at her. She dodged the large piece of earth flying at her, only to be hit hard in the side by a relatively smaller piece, the size of an industrial container of Clorox wipes. It knocked her back, sending her into a roll that, thanks to the bestowed knowledge, was semi-controlled. It didn't save her from smashing into the tree.


"Don't engage recklessly, the hollow is smarter than it looks!"





She'd found that out the hard way. Adonna rushed to get back onto her feet, "Ugh!" Her hand went to her side. Her uniform top was intact, as in no tears, but a deep red stain grew steadily upon the grey cloth. The impact of the debris must have split her skin. She gazed back up at the creature, the monster creating some sort of web ball, and from the depths of her, in a place that felt like absolute truth, a voice spoke to her: There is nothing you can do.





Bullshit. Absolute bullshit. She could indeed do something, she was going to show that she could do something... Stop... It was a combination of seeing Shun's avian creations, Alice's magnificant launch into the air, and her Zodiac's bestowment that kept Adonna from stupidly charging in and getting herself killed. See. Watch, like Shun does. Think, for once, before you act. A calmness swept her. No, not so much calmness as it was a focus. A new level of focus that she'd never before obtained. Unbeknownst to her, the skin-like aura of the purple flame that coated her faintly grew.


Alice was smashing the spider, its odd colored blood spurting out. Shun's sparrow and phoenix were distracting it proficiently.


"Focus on the spider!"





Adonna acted, ignoring the pain. She turned to the tree she'd rolled into and grabbed a large branch. SNAP! It came off thanks to her enhanced strength, the end of it shaped into a wicked looking point. Despite the flame surrounding her body, it did not catch the branch on fire. She turned at the sound of Shun calling her, just to see him get hit by the gigantic web ball. Shun! She lost the concentration, acting recklessly again. She didn't see the ball coming till, SHIT!





A wall of red saved her. Hotaru had used her blood to create a shield for the lot of them. That's when it truly hit her. It hadn't been enough before, seeing them act against the monster, it took this for Adonna to realize. You are not alone in this. The thought resonated, the concentration returned. She gripped the obtained branch like a spear, and stanced herself defensively, ready to dash in and strike at the right opportunity.


She saw not the boy in the shadows who was readying for an assault on Reese.


 
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Hotaru quickly drew blood out, she pulled it out. For some odd reason it was a bit reluctant to come out. Hotaru stretched out her arms like she was pulling on taffy. She quickly shaped it into a sword. Hotaru let down Shun's blood shield due to Shun being caught by surprise and falling towards Hotaru. Hotaru could make one shield to protect them both. Hotaru merged the blood with the other shields making it stronger. She added more thickness to the other shields as well.


After strengthening the defense, Hotaru quickly looked over to Shun. He had gotten up. Hotaru realized that one hit won't knock her friends down. After some scribbling of some sort, Shun began to stumble a bit he suddenly fell from exhaustion. Hotaru quickly caught him and struggled to keep him standing, so she decided to let him down. Upon examining, she realized Shun had been bleeding from the ear. Hotaru quickly collected the blood and held it up looking for any open wounds on him.


Hotaru frowned, the spider did this. The spider and Reese. Reese and the spider did all of this. Glaring full on, she stood up and watched as blood spilled from Alice's attack. Holding up a hand, she suspended her own blood, with her other hand she controlled the spider's blood. She reeled in the blood towards her, with sharp movements she threw the monster's blood at itself. It had proven to be a successful blood bath. Hotaru quickly shielded her friends, including Damian who joined in later, in an orb of blood.


She tried as hard as possible to not let a drop fall upon their clothing. Hotaru was still letting out steam. She was angry, very angry. It didn't matter how cute it looked, it hurt her friends. Reese hurt his own friends. Hotaru felt her head burn from the blood loss, she took her newly formed weapon made of the spider's blood.


It will die in it's own filth.
 

<--


| Afternoon |


| Friday |


Date: September 20, 2014

​



From the constant brutal pounding from Alice, to the suddenly halted movement of the spider itself, things weren't looking good for the attacking side. There were too many bodies that moved on their plans to take the creature down. Even with all those eyes, they weren't able to keep up with the action with an axe-wielding psychopath on it. Stunned at his own attack being blocked by that of the Phoenix and Alice herself, Resse could only stand and watch as sh-


A sharp pain slashed into his spine while Adonna finished him off with a frontal stab of the altered branch. His eyes widened and his pupils shook with fear. At that same point in time, his spider's own blood had shot through it like a bullet, sending it down to crash on the earth.


It almost sounded like whimpering, but Resse's movements had failed him. The slash to his spine rendered him paralyzed and the stab to his stomach was a nail in the coffin. Throughout his uncontrollable whimpering, he uttered a stressed phrase.


"Th-Thank you.."


Resse's body began to fade into the air like dust, the last image of him was of sweet relief - the relief of dying. A final end to a stressful life. With his body, so went the spider's. All the while Dominic stood with a ice slurpee in hand, his employee's uniform still on. Without saying a word, he simply brought his hands to his eyes and rubbed them for a while.


The purple copy of the world began to shrink in the same manner that it expanded - from Ben. Life returned to the area, the sky showing that sunset was near. The entire ordeal for Boone and the bystanders was a series of kicked up grass and odd wind shifts. The destruction of that battle disappeared with that ethereal realm, including anything that had to do with Zodiacs. The axe - all the blood - Adonna's fire - all of it was gone, leaving them all to look like a simple band of students.


Dominic lowered his hand to see that the place had returned to normal.  



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| Evening |


| Friday |


Date: September 20, 2014

​



The concerned talk amongst student and parents alike died down after the battle. None of it was seen, but Boone, who had been the closest to the window - felt something strange about what was happening.


That was no doubt a hollow in our world, but why did it stop?


Without a means to protect the school, their only hope was to pray that the spirit would simply leave them be. His questions were soon answered once a pair of students had appeared out of thin air. Only he saw them return to their world, and only he noticed strange situation they were in. A boy is injured!


It only took a few minutes for the nurse and a few helpers to step out into the field and come to Shun's aid. While the nurse gasped at the wounds, the helpers stood by to assist taking him to the infirmary to the school. Behind them emerged Boone with a stern expression on his face. There was no hiding it, these kids were more involved than they seemed.


Do you see now? You must do your part to fix this. I do my part by fighting my best friend? I already told you, I'm not doing that, and I don't want your 'power'. Dominic sighed briefly as he took a look at his now empty slurpee. He flicked his hand to toss the cup carelessly into a nearby dumpster. I'm not sure about this 'Lance' person, but Damian isn't a bad guy. He's had a hard life so it made him bitter towards everything. Deep down, he's alright. He is nearing insanity, and so is Lance. The issue isn't apparent now, but when your favored friend cracks, everyone you care about will be in danger. It's not like I expected you to understand anyway. You're not a human.


Funny enough, instead of cooking outdoors, some people had actually resumed their day out, inside of the gym, which was more than enough space for people to relax. The food helped calm the nerves of the more skittish ones, and once people began to move in and out of the gym, things returned normal without a second thought to what actually happened.


 
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With her last strike, Alice pounded into the spider, the wound now affecting it and it's body falling to the ground making a huge boom and everything shaking around her. Breathing in heavily, everything faded back to normal and the axe disappeared from her hand. Hearing the faint words of Reese, she felt the weight on her shoulder lighten,"Bye Reese." She whispered softly to herself, the wind carrying her words away.


The blood from earlier was gone but a sharp pain flowed through her arms, groaning in pain from slamming the Eliminator into the spider placed too much pressure on her arms and back. Stretching her body, she turned to see Dominic standing there enjoying a nice slurpee in his hand,"Ha, you got to be kidding me." She thought seeing how Dominic was quite calm over this while they had to fight a hollow alone mostly Alice since she had to do all the work to beat that disgusting arachnids down with Tyrik's axe but the others did help and she was thankful for that.


Looking over at the group, she went over to Hotaru and Shun. Helping Hotaru with Shun's ear,"Sh*t. Damien help me carry Shun to the hospital!" She called out to Damien since he was a male and since Alice's arms were sore, she wouldn't be of any help. Looking up at Hotaru, she couldn't take out her notebook to communicate like they usually do and instead used her voice,"Are you okay Hotaru?" She asked worried hoping her friend was fine.
 
Ukime was crouched down like always, using the box cutter to open up four boxes. She had to restock the shelves with new supplies for hair and nails. She sighed a little bored with it all until Kai came out with a box and his keys. She looked up at him with a smile but he only frowned. Ukime gave him a questionable look before getting up and placing the box cutter in her pocket. He started to walk toward the door so Ukime jogged toward it and opened it for him. Kai walked out and opened up the back car door. He slid the box in slowly and carefully. Ukime looked underneath his elbow to see what he was doing.


"What's in the box?"


"N...nothing really."


"Your handling it carefully?"


"Y..yea."


Kai had walked around toward the car door and opened it. Ukime opened up the passenger before he could lock it. She hopped in and shut the door then buckled up. Kai looked at Ukime with an angered yet frustrated look and pointed toward the shop.


"You can't come, get out."


"Whats with the snappy attitude Kai, come on, or this delivery will be late."


"U...ukime."


Kai frowned as he started the car and began to drive down the road. Ukime but her elbow on the part before the window the laid her head against the window. She hummed as she swung her legs and watched the kids walk with their parents. She would glance back at Kai who seemed nervous. His hand shook as he gripped tightly on to the wheel. He had a habit at looking around when he was in trouble so Ukime knew something was up. She was happy she put the box cutter in her pocket, since she might needed it.
 
Ding.


Something clicked in Nikky’s head that made the girl look up and listen hard, everything was silent. She observed her surroundings to see that even the crowd drew in their breath to listen, just like her. She took her chance to get to the window and peer outside the window. Whatever had been tossing and turning before was now gone. What a strange day, actually no, what a strange CITY all together but she wasn’t one to complain. “Looks like it’s over.” she felt, well, she couldn’t quite describe how she felt. Nikky looked back at the group of people, no doubt there would be a lot them demanding what exactly happened and she would most likely be one of them.


But that was the strange thing, no one asked, not even a mention of what happened people just picked up the pieces and carried on with their day. Nikky went through a gamut of emotions, from confused to curious to straight up anger. They were LAUGHING and SMILING, even having FUN, damn that friggin' laughing, it pissed her off the most. What exactly was happening here? She asked around but no one really said anything about it as if they were afraid to even mention it. It defied very human nature, the thirst to know what one didn’t know. It went against what she knew to be facts.


As Nikky was looking around trying to figure out what was happening, she spotted people she talked to just the other day. Alice, Hotaru, a very tall girl, Adonna- Her eyes fell onto Shun who was being escorted by nurses. Her mouth opened and closed looking like a fish trying to gasp for air. Unsure of herself how to approach, "fuck it" She approached the frantic little group. Surprisingly the only sane ones around. She could ask them later, right now things had to be done.
 
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Hotaru still had her blood suspended in the air waiting to protect everyone. She quickly dismantled her weapon watching the purple ground disappear. Hotaru realized what was happening and quickly brought her blood back into the source. The red liquid gathered above her head resembling a twister, Hotaru forced it back into her wound. Hotaru's blurry vision faded a bit, but the immense blood inserted to her body was too much to handle. She decided she'll worry about it later.


She quickly put her attention of the wounded boy in front of her. Hotaru picked up his feet and began to drag him around. It was not a very good idea due to his wounds, but she was never the strong type. All of a sudden Alice inquires Hotaru about her health, Hotaru jumped a bit dropping Shun's legs. Frowning she looked down as poor Shun, Hotaru held up a thumbs up at Alice. She was alright for the time being. Her head was hurting and she was sprouting a fever due to the unclean blood, but compared to Shun her injuries were minimal.


All of a sudden, sugar seemed to be fueling her actions once again. Hotaru quickly straightened her spine and gave Alice a tackle hug. She quickly gave Shun a hug as well before people began to pour out of the buildings. It was quite hard due to him being implanted to the ground. With or without Ben's consent, she gave him a hug as well. With an oddly bright attitude, Hotaru skipped like a school girl to Adonna and gave her a hug and a pat on her head. Hotaru approached Dominic, she gave him a hug and messed his hair up. Hotaru gave Damian a hug and placed grass blades on his head, trying to balance it. Hotaru took off running and hugged Nikky who joined in later.


Soon, Hotaru was bouncing people to people giving them more hugs and random gestures to where to stand. She glanced at the nurses and helpers helping Shun on a stretcher and gave hugs to them as well. Hotaru was about to give the headmaster a hug, when her brain decided to shut down.


Once her brain shut down, her heartbeat quickened and her muscles became more sore. She was only steps away from the nearest person. Hotaru must hug people...With her last thought wasted away, Hotaru fell to the ground, passed out from sleep deprivation.




  • She didn't dream. She did think. Do you want to read that?


 
What...?


Nikky was drawn from her concern as Hotaru gave her a hug, she really couldn't believe this,was Hotaru serious? That girl was such a strange person. Nikky couldn't help but be fascinated by her as she hopped from people hugging them she suddenly keeled over and fell right to the ground with a muffled thud. She was quiet for a moment trying to process the quick sequence of events. "H-Hotaru..." she took a cautious few steps towards the fallen girl.


She looked around to see the nurses were all escorting Shun and not paying much attention to the collapsed girl. With a sigh she grabbed Hotaru managing to place her on her back and followed after the nurses. She was lighter than she expected.


Damnit, screw wanting to be ignorant, she only said that when she didn't have any leads and now knowing what she wanted to know was right there in front of her... It killed her a bit inside, honestly. Still, getting Hotaru and Shun to the nurse was more important but it didn't stop her from whining like a little kid all the way there.
 
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---


| Evening |


| Friday |


Date: September 20, 2014

​



Ben was brought back to reality by Hotaru's sudden hug. He had forgotten the girl had a habit of expressing her feelings physically without warning. Nonetheless, he couldn't shake off what had just happened. As the battle raged on, he was empty. The entire duration of the fight he simply sat there with empty emotions. Not even the parting words of Reese stirred him.


Looking over to the students who had no doubt protected him, he opened his mouth to throw questions at them, but they all simply died in his throat. The area was populated once more when people continued to grill into the darkening day. I have to tell Dominic. His friends are-..


No, they're my friends too.


With the confusion and panic being pulled toward Shun's motionless body, Ben stood up and took his leave to recollect himself. All of that would have to wait for another time. Phillips, who had retreated into the safety of the school, joined up with Ben on his walk to the dorm.


The sun sat on the horizon now. The stars had come out with force well ahead of it's dark surroundings. Even though the sky was painted an orange hue, the bright shining could already be seen. After quickly returning Hotaru's hug and straightening his hair, he glanced skyward with a curious face. Why are you here? He wondered. If you're truly deceased, why come back?


It's unknown why certain souls never fully pass on. For most of us, our deaths were simple, yet we never reached the 'clouds above' as they call it. The smartest of us think of it as a curse, but I feel as if there's a higher power at work here.


What they fought.. That was a hollow, wasn't it? I saw the boy there, I practiced with him just a few days ago.


Time doesn't necessarily determine who's a hollow and who isn't. Any soul that cannot be given release of the 'curse', have high chances of going insane. The boy Reese was no different than any of us Zodiacs, except for a broken state of mind.


A breeze blew past Dominic, his hair once again turning messy with a single strand sticking up. It didn't take much for him to run his hand over it and move it back where it was.


I think I'll visit the shrine. I can clear my thoughts there.


You remind me of a man I once knew.


Dominic turned halfway before glancing over his shoulder to the others. A frown formed on his face when he saw Shun, but he was already put on a stretcher and sent to the infirmary, along with Hotaru when the stress put on her body finally caught up to her. Part of him wished he could help, while the other made him feel useless. A lose-lose situation for him, but a shrine visit would erase that.





With that, Dominic stuffed his hands in his pocket and was off to the shrine as the sky continued to darken unto night.
 
The battle was over with a jab in the back. Damian felt that his help was unnecessary but it helped drive the nail into the coffin. With the blade of black jutting through Reese's abdomen, and a stake driven through his chest from Adonna the small boy slouched. His eyes fell sullen and he grew a deathly limp. He muttered his final words from his sunken head, and finally passed on. Now what was this? Parting words? A thank you? For killing him? This left a different feeling than his recent spiteful blood lust... He felt... Guilty? But he also felt he did the right thing? Reese didn't deserve this gruesome end, no. But he was accepting of it too. Perhaps... Not all Hollows are evil, Damian thought. His abysmal form had been lifted as the world returned to its normal state and he was brought back with the other students. Damian awkwardly stood there, contemplating what had just happened. This is the second life he took, but this time it felt bitter. He knew there would be repercussions for murder but he didn't plan on taking an undeserving life... It left a bad taste in his mouth. He was so stuck in thought that he didn't hear Alice's plea to help her with Shun, and that the Nurses had even helped him to the infirmary. What finally kicked him out of his trance was Hotaru's hug, and the blades of grass on his head. Damian usually would've been baffled by the gesture but he simply laughed at it. He didn't even bother to remove the grass. I guess it was his way of saying he was happy that Hotaru's at least in good spirits. Unfortunately, she passed out. Damian assumed it had to do with blood loss, considering her wounds were pretty messy... It didn't take him long to spot Nikky who looked as confused as anyone should be. He was willing to explain but there was someone missing. "Where's Dom'?" Damian whispered. In all this chaos he was nowhere to be found... On top of that Damian hadn't really spoken to him for a couple of days. With the sun setting on the horizon he had some light to look around with, luckily Dom's a distinctive giant to Damian. All he needed to do was move his head a good 35 degrees and find Dominic sulking away from the group. "That's.. Not normal of him." As much as Damian wanted to see if everyone else is okay he had to see what was wrong with his brother. He closed his eyes with a squint, feeling some guilt leaving the others so abruptly. With a flash of black light, Damian disappeared. Damian had reappeared in an alleyway adjacent to Dominic, materializing through a shadow. His eyes had illuminated red in the dark of the alleyway. Like a cats eyes in the dark. "Dom'. Where are you off to? You hadn't left the group before." Damian said, pulling himself from off the wall.





~




​



From the rooftop of Armstrong High, stood a muscular man. His shape could resemble that of what the Greek's pictured a God. The perfect form of man. He was shirtless, but wore saggy trousers that were bound by a rope-like sash around his waist. His shoes were made cloth, the underbelly was a hard leather. He would be an obvious sight, standing against the setting sun, high above the school... But he was not. This was another Zodiac peering down at Armstrong's heroes. His shoulder length hair had blown beautifully in the wind. His face was covered by the shade. One could only see his light blue, lightning arcing, glowing eyes. Staring sharply down below. "That Reese was a disappointment."
 

<--


| Evening |


| Friday |


Date: September 20, 2014

​



It was already bedtime for the town of Brookfield. The street Dominic walked on was free of life except for a few, including him. His walk was also silent internally. The voice in his head rendered mute as soon as he departed from the school's field. The feeling in his gut was strange, not happy, yet not sad either. For once, he was completely neutral in emotion, unsure of how to feel about what he saw or what he learned so far.


A sudden wave of energy washed over him, making him stop and peer into the alleyway beside him. There, a familiar face emerged from the black shade and greeted him.





"Dom'. Where are you off to? You hadn't left the group before."


Dominic formed a smile on his face to along with his chuckle.


"I'm headed to the shrine. I have a lot of things on my mind today."


He paused, almost expecting the spirit to make itself heard once more in the presence of Damian, but alas, it was silent.


"I see you've gotten used to your new self." He said making a head motion towards Damian. Dominic had to admit, he expected a drastic change in his best friend's behavior, given the boiled rage he had, but so he seemed to ease into his new power with little to no problem. His first demonstration in the gym was full of panic and confusion, now he was able to appear just about anywhere with a simple thought. It was impressive to see, even kindling a little jealousy towards the matter.


 
"That's what I've been trying to talk to you about for the past few days... A lot has happened with me. I feel it's best if I tell you." Damian stepped to Dom's side, exhaling heavily. "Dom' I murdered my Stepfather... First off." Damian tilted his head to the side, as to gesture that they should keep walking. Damian didn't care that it was late at night and that his Mother may have been worried. He needed to get a lot of things off his chest. "And... That fellow who hit Red with that cane? I fought him as well. There's... A lot that I need to explain. And I can't really tell the others. They'd just grow paranoid of me and try to end me like that boy did." Damian stuffed his hands into his pockets, hiding his clenched fists.
 
Nikky laid Hotaru onto a bed, well, it was more like threw her onto a bed. She looked around the infirmary, it hadn’t really changed from her last visit and she can’t say she missed the place. She patted the sleeping girl on the head before turning to look at the nurses, most likely tending to Shun’s wounds. Shun had it rough, and she’d be damned if that tugging question wasn’t killing her right about now. But the two people she could ask were both temporarily incapacitated. Then that left… Alice! Her eyes lit up; a blood hound catching scent of its game.


She’d have to get her answers from her! And then her phone rang, she walked out the room before answering, “Hello?”


“Nikky!”


She recognized the voice immediately, it was her aunt.


“H-hey.” She managed to stammer


“I want you to come home.”


Nikky paused, her aunt had a thing for catching her off guard and these were one of those times.


“Wh-Why?”


“Don’t ask why!” Her aunt snapped, “The deaths Nikky, from YOUR school. You aren’t safe, I want you to come home.”


Nikky shook her head even though she knew her Aunt couldn’t see her, she couldn’t talk about this now! She had stuff to do.


“Please, can we talk about this some other time I’m, I’m in the middle of something.”


“Nikky, don’t you hang up this ph-“


She clicked the end call button standing there for a moment, She jumped as the phone started ringing only a few seconds later and kept ringing until she was forced to turn it off.


“Sorry.”
 
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